Party Poker Review 2010

Party Poker overview 2010.

Party Poker was the top online poker room for the longest time. Since they stopped accepting US players in 2006, they slipped in to the #4 spot behind PokerStars, Full Tilt and the iPoker network. Party is a great room if you're looking for high player traffic with decent software, but the lack of rakeback lets the room down.

• Still a very good room with reliable support and high traffic.
• Doesn't excel in any one area, but then that does not necessarily make it a bad room.
• No rakeback and a pretty poor VIP program.

The traffic and support is still quality, but the room doesn't really excel in any one area or offer rakeback. It's a shame that the room has become a little forgotten over the years, but it still ticks all the basic boxes for an enjoyable room for new players.

Basically, Party Poker is the ideal room for new players who have no concerns about rakeback. If you're an experienced player that enjoys the benefits of rakeback, then I would stick with the rakeback rooms or PokerStars (which is essentially a better version of Party Poker).

PartyPoker competition and traffic.

• High traffic. #4 for traffic overall, but still an abundance of players.
• Competition slightly softer than at Full Tilt and Stars.

There is more than enough traffic at Party, which means that you can play at whatever stakes you like and multi table at higher limits than you would be able to at smaller rooms like Cake and Bodog.

Party Poker does a very good job of attracting casual players due to their style of advertising. In addition to this, Full Tilt and Stars have more serious players from the US, as the casual (and misinformed) US players are reluctant to play poker online for the fear that it may be somewhat illegal or difficult to get started.

There isn't a huge difference between the quality of competition at Full Tilt and PokerStars versus Party, but Party does have the slight edge.

However! The marginally softer competition doesn't quite make it worth playing at Party over Full Tilt because of the rakeback deal, or over PokerStars due to their superior software and loyalty program.

Visit the Party Poker website

Party Poker software.

• Very stylish and impressively easy to resize windows for multi-tabling.
• HoldemManager and PokerTracker 3 supported.
• Lobby is too big with too much going on.
• You can only play up to 4 tables at a time and software can be a little buggy.

Party Poker is undoubtedly a very nice looking room (the Party Casino isn't bad either). The table design is very PokerStars-esque and has the sleek feel of the Bodog tables. In addition to this, the tables resize wonderfully, with the smallest windows being as clear and crisp as the largest ones.

The three main downsides with the Party Poker software is that is can become a little slow and buggy unless you have a good computer, which is due to the client being more resource intensive than other clients. The second problem is that the lobby is very big, when it could be cut down much more to make it easier to navigate. The third is that you can only multi-table up to 4 tables at a time.

Overall, as long as you have a decent computer and don't want play at more than 4 tables at a time, the Party software is very enjoyable. The room also runs well on the Ubuntu OS (see Party Poker Ubuntu).

Party Poker VIP program.

Party Poker offers a VIP program instead of rakeback, where you can collect points and trade them for real money in the store. It's just like the system used at PokerStars (as highlighted in the PokerStars rakeback article), except the PokerStars VIP system is better with their superior rewards.

The Party Poker VIP rewards program works out to give players the equivalent of between 5% and 20% rakeback depending on how long you save your points for. The equivalent rakeback is shown below.

Bronze reward - 5%

• Trade 200 points for $5 reward.
• Roughly $100 will be paid in rake to get 200 points.
• Rakeback equivalent = 5%

Silver reward - 6.7%

• Trade 1,500 points for $50 reward.
• Roughly $750 will be paid in rake to get 1,500 points.
• Rakeback equivalent = 6.7%

Gold reward - 8.3%

• Trade 12,000 points for $500 reward.
• Roughly $6,000 will be paid in rake to get 12,000 points.
• Rakeback equivalent = 8.3%

Palladium reward - 10%

• Trade 30,000 points for $1,500 reward.
• Roughly $15,000 will be paid in rake to get 30,000 points.
• Rakeback equivalent = 10%

Palladium elite reward - 20%

• Trade 150,000 points for $15,000 reward.
• Roughly $75,000 will be paid in rake to get 150,000 points.
• Rakeback equivalent = 20%

The majority of low to mid-stakes players will not make it past the Silver or Gold levels, so it would be hard to assume that you would getting anything more than 8.3% of your rake back unless you are a very high stakes player.

If you are a very high stakes player, you will be better off taking advantage of one of the poker valueback deals at the OnGame rooms any way, which is why the Party rewards system isn't that great.

Party Poker bonus.

• 100% up to $500.
• Bonus is moderately easy to clear.

When you are signing up to Party Poker, use the Party Poker bonus code BANKBONUS to get the optimum 100% up to $500 new player bonus.

The bonus is fairly easy to clear, but it is not as easy to clear as the bonuses at other major rooms like Full Tilt and PokerStars. Nonetheless, if you are a bonus whore, the bonus money works out to return about 25% of the rake you pay back to your account. Check the poker bonuses page to see how the Party bonus compares with others.

Party Poker bonus details.

• Deposit at least $25 to get the bonus.
• You must collect 8 times bonus amount in Party Points to redeem the full bonus.
• Bonus money will be broken up and paid out in 10 chunks.
• Bonus must be cleared within 120 days of first deposit.
• Earn 10 PartyPoints for playing 25 raked hands in $1/$2 NL Texas Hold'em.
• Earn 2 points for every $1 paid in tournament fees.

A decent bonus overall, but not easy enough to redeem to make it a big selling point for Party Poker.

Useful Party Poker pages.

• Party Poker Ubuntu.

Visit the Party Poker website

Go back to the Texas Hold'em rooms.